


The Perks of Having an Insomniac Boyfriend

by HCN



Category: London Spy
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 21:16:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7590688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HCN/pseuds/HCN
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny spends the night with Alex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Perks of Having an Insomniac Boyfriend

It was silent, and Danny was freezing. A thin layer of sweat covered his forehead, and his hair stuck to the back of his neck, trapped between his head and the pillow. The room, he finally realised, was not his bedroom. For a moment Danny couldn’t move, and lay holding a full breath of air deep in his lungs as his eyes skirted around the dim room.

There wasn’t a lot of furniture, but it wasn’t completely empty, nor was it completely dark; it wasn’t the city lights providing the soft blue glow, but a laptop screen. Sitting in bed next to him was Alex, hunched over his laptop fully engrossed in the numbers that were appearing on screen and completely numb to the world around him.

Danny let out a deep breath, feeling how the muscles in his chest loosened and the tension he was holding in his back and shoulders lessened, letting him sink further down against the mattress and close his eyes. Everything was all right. He pulled the blanket up to his chin, settling into the warmth and listening to the hum of Alex’s laptop. He was safe – content, even.

Still, he couldn’t shake the creeping feeling that travelled up the length of his spine and left him with a horrible chill every time his thoughts dotted back around to the dream that woke him.

It wasn’t a nightmare in the traditional sense. He couldn’t remember any details, and the longer he was awake the more elusive the dream became, until it was only a smudge on his thoughts, like how it felt any time some loud noise from outside yanked him awake and left him in bed, only for the noise to be gone again, lost to mid-day traffic with the only proof of it having been there at all being that he was awake now, wasn’t he? And something had to wake him.

“Danny?”

Despite himself he jumped, startled.

“I’m all right, Alex,” he said, pulling the blanket down off his face and tilting his head up towards Alex. The shadows his laptop cast on his face left a sinister profile, but somehow it just made Danny relax more. “I didn’t disturb you, did I?”

“You’re fine,” Alex said. “You haven’t been awake for long.”

“No,” Danny said. “I just woke up, actually.”

“If you want to go back to sleep, you should be able to. I’ll try not to make too much noise.”

At the mention of going back to sleep, the familiar shiver reached up his spine, heavy and silent as it settled itself around his throat. It was just waiting for him to start nodding off so it could drag him back to sleep again.

“I don’t think I’m going to get any more sleep tonight, actually,” Danny said. He sat up, rubbing his eyes and blinking a few times, trying to force away the last bits of sleep that clung to him.

He glanced over to Alex quickly, suddenly self-conscious that he was watching him. His eyes dropped to the laptop sitting on Alex’s knees.

“Don’t mind me if you have work to do,” he added. “I can entertain myself, or leave if you prefer.”

“It’s late.”

“I’ve been out later.”

For a moment Danny thought Alex was considering taking him up on his offer and letting him go, and he worried that he would do a bad job to hide the stab of disappointment that was coming. It was probably for the best, anyway – Alex was clearly busy and had no time to be looking after him, or even just worrying about him. Besides, the walk home would do him good, even if it was cold out there.

“You don’t have to go,” Alex said. “It might be boring for you if you stay.”

“Boring’s fine. I like being bored.”

Danny felt his blood rise to his face and warming his skin. Just as he was about to correct himself, to elaborate and say that it wouldn’t be a problem if he stayed, it wouldn’t be boring for him at all, actually, that he could actually use the peace to take a moment to clear his head, Alex responded.

“I’m glad,” he said. “I like the company.”

Satisfied and relieved, Danny settled back against the pillows, gradually shifting down so he was under the blankets again. He couldn’t keep his eyes away from Alex. How long had he been awake for? Danny remembered Alex laying down in bed with him when he’d fallen asleep, but he couldn’t remember Alex getting up at any point in the night, and Danny always considered himself to be a light sleeper, awake at the softest flutter of his curtains on a bad day.

He couldn’t help but to wonder what Alex made of this at all. Most of the people Danny used to spend the night with were too drunk to notice if he woke up tense and jittery, and anyone in his flat was either used to seeing him jerk awake, or else just didn’t ask. A few people did, though: the ones who recognised his uneasy sleep for what it was and weren’t willing to let it slide. Alex didn’t seem like he was one of those people, but he had to assume something. As engrossed in his laptop as he was, nothing ever slipped past him.

When Alex shifted beside him, Danny couldn’t stop himself from jumping again. He turned his head around to look up at Alex, suddenly curious about what he was doing – but all Alex did was shut down his laptop, bringing the room to blackness. As his eyes adjusted Danny listened to Alex as he put his laptop away, then he watched Alex’s silhouette move through the shadows and crawl back into bed with him.

Alex’s hand brushed over his shoulder, and despite some part of himself wanting to play it cool, Danny quickly buried himself in Alex’s arms, tucking his face down against his chest.

Quickly, though, he poked his head up, pulling back to get a better look at the shadowy outlines of Alex’s face, now only lit by the faint light peaking over the top of the curtains. “Are you sure?”

“About what?”

“Lying down. You have work to do.”

“I can do it later,” Alex said. “I probably should try to rest, at least.”

“Do you want me to let you sleep?” Danny asked.

“I probably won’t get any more,” Alex said. “But if you aren’t sleeping, either….” He trailed off and wrapped an arm around Danny’s thin frame, pulling him close again. Like a cat drawn to the sunny spot on the kitchen floor, Danny settled against Alex’s chest and relaxed against the warmth.


End file.
